Media/Art Briefing— Global

Preface

A gallery in Istanbul, a radio for rock star and a Q&A with New-York based art collector Henry Buhl.

Start-up Mission

San Francisco [THE SUMMIT]

Like many cafés in the San Francisco Mission district, every surface at The Summit is covered in laptops. But the venue doesn’t just look like a tech incubator – it is part of one.

The space is owned by i/o Ventures, which grants $25,000 (€17,750) to six start-ups and for three to six months allots them a desk in an office above the café. If the wannabes working at the long tables downstairs have a decent business idea, they may get to move upstairs.

43

May 2011

Q&A

Edwy Plenel

Mediapart

Paris

Edwy Plenel launched the French investigative news website Mediapart in 2008. Since then it has set the agenda on many major stories, including the Bettencourt political funding scandal.

How did you launch the site and why?
We reflected on the eruption of new media online and on the crisis in French news. We decided we had to make the leap into digital, but also wanted to defend our traditional way of working.

What does it offer that traditional French media doesn’t?
I worked at Le Monde for 25 years. In 2005 I resigned, as the paper seemed less dynamic and bold. The French news industry’s independence is in crisis due to conflicts of power and influence.

How can a paid news website compete with traditional media?
By forging a new relationship with its readers, who have the power to contribute to the website.

How’s it doing?
We set out to prove people would pay for our news online. We’ve found that it works. We’ve gained 49,000 paying subscribers, and 150 for our English language site. We’ve made a partnership with Wikileaks and we have also launched a “Frenchleaks” website. We will doubtless turn a profit in 2011.

THE COLLECTOR

Q&A

Henry Buhl

New York

Philanthropist and collector Henry Buhl owns nearly 1,100 photographs of hands. His collection, which features works from the likes of Gregory Crewdson and Diane Arbus, has been presented in institutions around the world, including New York’s Guggenheim and the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg.

Did you set out only to buy works featuring hands?
It was purely by accident. I was a wedding photographer, and one day a girlfriend showed me a silver gelatin print of Georgia O’Keeffe’s hands called “Hands with Thimble” (1920) by Alfred Stieglitz, which was for sale at $75,000. In October 1993, Christie’s had a palladium platinum identical image estimated at $100,000-$150,000 (€71,000-€106,000). The seller [we were dealing with] took half of the high-end estimate of Christie’s $150,000 to arrive at our $75,000 price (a silver gelatin generally sells for half that of a palladium platinum print). The Christie’s Stieglitz sold for $398,000 (€283,000), pricing my Stieglitz theoretically at $200,000 (€142,000). A great two-day profit. Six months later I purchased my second photograph of hands. It went on and on.

Why hands?
Something about them struck me. They are beautiful and utilitarian. Our brain signals our hands to do almost everything we have to do. They are necessary to life.

How do you buy?
We get most from Hans P Kraus Jr Fine Photographs in New York. I have also been going to Art Basel in Switzerland and Miami for years. When most galleries see a hand they know I don’t own, they send it to me. I say yay or nay. I collect emotionally.

What will you do with your collection?
I can imagine it will eventually be sold individually or as a unit. The money will go to a foundation that I’ve set up.

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